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Christmas Cards Made 2016

Tuesday, 29 April 2014

Sometimes I think I am drowning in a sea of flowers. Now, that might be good if they were exciting, cutting edge flowers...soft and dreamy...or grungy and textured. Alas, mine are the more than 10 year old or more, Prima flowers, and some other older styles, that seem to multiply behind my back!

I have pinned a lot of ideas to spur me on to use them on my card creations. Here is a link to the card I saw on Pinterest that inspired me to create this card. Pinterest card here

While I did manage to use a few flowers last year, I am on a mission this year to use them in my designs. I have decided to track just how many I manage to use...I thought that might encourage me to continue along this path. So a new little ticker has been installed at the top of my blog! I made it my goal to have a flower a day or 365 flowers re-homed onto my cards or projects....by 2015!

If I have counted correctly, there are 40 flowers on this card! I have assembled most into three layers and am counting each layer as a flower used. They are after all, 40 flowers pulled from my stash, assembled, and re-homed onto this card! Hope that doesn't seem like cheating! lol

Of course there will not be a flower used every day...so to boost the number of flowers used to date, I planned this flowerpot of blooms card! It was great fun to make. Many flowers have three or even four layers. I anchored them with tiny brads, and managed to use up quite a few of those as well. They seem to be another item that I have hundreds of!

I was thinking of making half a dozen or so of this type of card...but after working with all those teensy blooms and the even teensier brads, my hands were too sore to do anymore. I will have to scatter making them throughout the year. I think they make very versatile cards. They could be pressed into service for so many occasions...Birthday, Thank you, Anniversary, etc.

Here is another view that shows the depth and a bit of sparkle...it is a bit off center but I cropped out my hand so it would be less distracting! I find if I can tilt the card under the Ott-lite, I can catch some of the shimmer.

This one is going to a lovely friend who I have known since she was a little girl. She lives in my Mum's small town and has been very kind and helpful to me, when I have been up visiting my Mum. Here is a peek at the inside...

****************This is card #11 of 50. I am on a consumables spending freeze until I have made 50 cards (Sook Wang tape and heavy weight card stock are exempt).***************

Sunday, 27 April 2014

Time for my biweekly Christmas Card Club where a group of lovely ladies and I take turns choosing a theme for our latest Christmas card. It was Karen's turn at Stamping in Pink, and she chose Black, White, and another colour!

This one really stretched my imagination. I was surprised to see how hard it could be. I think my mind was probably on my Mum and not the challenge, but I did struggle a bit with this one. Once a plan was in place, I really enjoyed it...just took me a while to get one! lol

I kept wanting to grab some red...but now that it is done, I do like it. I will use this card for a special someone who loves to receive religious Christmas cards. Can't say who, as she reads my blog occasionally.
Here is peek at the inside...It is not the perfect sentiment...but I only have a couple of religious ones...

I will be adding a second card to this post as soon as my camera charges. Then I can link it up to Rudolph Days over at Sarn's (Stamping Ground). You have from the 25th till the end of each month, to link your two Christmas card post.

Friday, 25 April 2014

This is the test card I made on my own, when I was planning and making up the kits for last week's craft day with my neighbour. I was a wee bit nervous cuz had only played with inks once before. I decided I liked the outcome and went ahead with the inky card kits I showed you on a previous post.

I used watercolour paper. Not sure if I like the result on it, but I do like the colours. I used heavy, water colour paper. I think it was 130 pound paper, but it seemed to get these little grainy spots. Next time I try these, I will use the same card stock I used for the ATC's last year. It seemed to take the stain better and looked smoother, for want of a better word.

I used some stamps that had never before seen ink (NBUS), so that was a good feeling. I think I need to implement a policy of stamping a "practice run" before laying a stamp to good paper. Stamps seem to all have a mind of their own Some need a heavy hand, some a light touch, some a lighter touch on one side more so than the other.....I am sure you all know what I mean!

I will keep up trying to make inky cards! It was fun and I enjoyed making this one.

****************This is card #8 of 50. I am on a consumables spending freeze until I have made 50 cards (Sook Wang tape and heavy weight card stock are exempt).***************

Wednesday, 23 April 2014

I am keeping busy making fifty cards before I spend any money on consumables. Heavy weight card stock and Sook Wang are exempt. My LSS had 40% off a line today, so I managed to get 100 sheets of my favourite Bazzil heavy weight card for cutting my card bases.

Today's cards are 3 from a set of 6 I have made for a friend. Now those of you that follow me, might remember that I actually do not like purple at all! But I do like my friend, so purple it is...

This last one is a bit out of focus on the sentiment. Here is a close up so you can see it is not as bad as it looks...and shows the lashings of stickles on these cards!

This trio features some 3 dimensional flowers from the dollar store. I bought the flower packet and one with the matching butterflies, quite some time ago. I had this friend in mind when I bought them, as I knew she would like the colours. Found the paper pad at the same store and as it all seemed to match, I picked it up too. So my forgotten $3.75 dollar store stash has made 6 cards so far, and I still have butterflies and paper left to make many more.

Sunday, 20 April 2014

It was my weekly craft day with Lisa, my next door neighbour. It was once again my turn to design and prepare our card kit. I decided that it is high time I practised more with my Tim Holtz stains. So I set out my TH mat, some water colour paper, and lots of twine, found some sparkly buttons and cut up some Kraft card stock for card bases.

We were off and running! We made a few inky backgrounds and both loved every minute of it! Then we promptly ruined the first couple of toppers by wrecking what we stamped over them. Fits of giggles and then we managed to make some more inky goodness. Whew! We were both happy with our outcomes and Lisa headed home stating that she was going to make more!

Here is my first. We dabbed some stain onto the mat and then picked it up with a H2O brush. I found that made the stain really watery on the card, so we dabbed the stain dauber right onto the now wet area on the card, and then used the H2O pen to spread the stain. Not sure if that was the right way...but we liked how it turned out! Flicked a little water from our fingers on it...next time I will try a mini spray bottle.

The stamp is just one from the Michael's $1.50 bins. I bought a couple of these inspirational type stamps a couple of years ago. I found the stamp was large enough to make a statement on its own. I learned my lesson from the sentiment that failed on my last inky card!
I kept embellishments to a minimum. Just a sparkly button tied through a bit of fine jute twine.

I have not finished the inside as I am writing a letter inside to a friend.

****************This is card #4 of 50. I am on a consumables spending freeze until I have made 50 cards (Sook Wang tape and heavy weight card stock are exempt).***************

Monday, 14 April 2014

Here is a birthday card I made with an image I coloured up at the lake last summer. I found it in with my coloured images that I file away in dollar store photo albums. It sure is handy to colour some ahead and file them away for days like this. lol

I have kept it fairly simple. The background paper is from a 6x6 paper pad I purchased in England last August. The Celebrate sentiment is a found treasure from a recent clean up in my craft room. All the other card elements were chosen from my snippets drawer because they either went with this DP or this sentiment box colour. A girl's got to do what a girl's got to do, to narrow down choices and get on to finishing up a card faster!

I am happy to say that my hip and back are feeling better...all that alternating of ice and heat really took the edge off and I feel on the road to recovery. I will be leaving DH to do any raking, lifting etc. in the gardens, and have been ordered to only do tasks in the garden that require sitting. DH is preparing a list for me! lol

It has been lovely here for the past couple of days and DH has been washing down the siding of the house and the garden shed. He is about 2/3 finished, and is already planning on washing the outside windows next. Then we will be well ready to enjoy spring and summer. We even put out some of the patio chairs and cushions...can't wait to have lunch out there.

****************This is card #3 of 50. I am on a consumables spending freeze until I have made 50 cards (Sook Wang tape and heavy weight card stock are exempt).***************

Saturday, 12 April 2014

It was Asha's turn to chose the theme for our Christmas Card Club. Her blog is Sunny Summer Crafts if you would like to pop over and take a look at her wonderful cards.

This was a great theme as there are so many different ways to interpret it. I chose to use my Memory Box Village Lamp Post die as I don't think I have ever used it before (NBUS). This year, I am trying to make a conscious effort to use my NBUS supplies rather than hoard them!

My back and hip are very sore at the moment and working at the craft table is quite painful. I kept this card quite simple, to shorten the time leaning over it. Expect to see me visiting all over blogland as I have been spending quite a bit of time sitting with my ice pack or heating pad! I had this same problem earlier this year and just got this under control 2 or 3 weeks ago. Today, I felt a slight pop as I was picking up some leaves...forcing me to limped into the house to find the icepack.

Luckily, I have several cards ahead so will schedule posts for the next short while. Enough wallowing...on with the card and the recipe...

And the inside...

****************This is card #2 of 50. I am on a consumables spending freeze until I have made 50 cards (Sook Wang tape and heavy weight card stock are exempt).***************

Friday, 11 April 2014

Last week was my turn to chose the design, and make up the card kit for my weekly card making day with my next door neighbour. I have already shown you the cloud and butterfly card we made (featured on my last post).

I tried to pick a fairly easy card design for the second card. I plan to make up several of this basic style, and needed them to be fairly fast to put together. Well, I guess sometimes they might be fast, but I had one of those days that everything I tried, seemed to backfire. The first card went together fairly quickly. This second one...not so much!

It seemed that I managed to screw up almost every element along the way. I would recoup, and tear off the offending item and start over. But I did it so many times it was starting to get annoying.

My neighbour went home with 5 lovely finished cards and I settled for barely finishing two!

Here is the one that gave me all the trouble...

I centered and then cut a Spellbinders Floral Doily Motif from a piece of pink card stock and then cut a smaller S/B Petite Circle in the center of doily, to create a frame. All I can say here is thank goodness for a magnetic platform!

I then slid a lightweight snippet of black card behind the cut out aperture to allow the black to show through the outer edge picot pattern. I added a SB circle of DP script just slightly larger than the aperture and positioned it to sit just under that frame...and then pop dotted the frame on top...very teensy pop dots I might add!
This step was mostly repeated once I realized I had mounted the script on a slight angle...drat.

Once that was sorted, I added a K&Co pink butterfly and a Penny Black sentiment. I finished up the inside with another PB verse stamped on a repeat of the S/B Floral Doily Motif. Two attempts later, I then managed to stamp that third attempt, slightly off center. Combed through the butterflies and managed to find one that had the right style to look as though I had "off stamped" on purpose. I took out the middle layer of the the inside butterfly...making it 2D if you like! This just helped make the card "sit" better when closed. Luckily, the two butterflies are situated on different side of the card, so that helps keep the depth down....so it is better for mailing.

At this point everything was tossed aside and we had lunch...amazing what renewed vigor there is after a nice bit of salad and cheese bun...lol Managed to finally finish it off and then added a bit of chalking to the edges to tie in the more vivid look of the butterfly! Yep...added the chalk to the finished card...with a carefully placed bit of scrap to catch the strays...luckily a white eraser caught any escapees!

Monday, 7 April 2014

The theme this week at Butterfly Challenge is of course Butterflies, and the twist is use the colour yellow. Mrs A requested a bit of yellow anywhere on your card...does not have to be on the butterfly. The sky is the limit!

I have been organizing in the craft room and had noticed some Color Bok Yellow Cadmium Chalk ink. Seems a funny place to start, but I went on a search to find things to go with.

The cloud paper is a snippet from a scrapbook layout and I embossed it with a Falling Snow EF. I was trying to get the varied look of raindrops. This embossed clouds snippet slid under the aperture that was created by using the negative of a S/B circle, cut from a snippet of blue card.

The butterfly is from the dollar store. Think they are a packet of 6 for a dollar so expect to see a few more here eventually! lol

I stamped the sentiments on a couple of snippets of white card on which I used the Yellow Cadmium quite liberally, as I wanted a good amount of yellow for the challenge.

Here is a close up of the embossing...

I am quite happy with the way this turned out. It was quick and easy to make and I managed to use a new stamp set for the outside sentiment as well as one from 1999 for the inside sentiment.

My neighbour made one of these cards too. It was my turn to design and create the card kit for our weekly paper crafting day. This was the card I kitted up for us. She is so creative...she embossed the outside snippet of dark blue cardstock in another pattern. It really looked great! I think I will make another of these and try that extra embossing on my next one!

Saturday, 5 April 2014

Here is another card from my weekly crafting day with my neighbour. This one was a lot of fun tearing up and inking an old, vintage looking map paper. These pieces were inked heavily with Ingvild Bolme black chalk ink, and matted with Kraft card, which was then inked heavily again. The background paper is a circular lined paper that we cut up randomly and then inked heavily again, with Invild's aqua ink. I wish I had roughed up the edges of that piece and torn them up a bit..but hey ho, what's done is done!

I have mentioned before about how nice it is to work with these particular chalk inks. They have a upward shape which provides a handle of sort. Fits these old worn out hands so well! No cramped fingers working with these!

The sailboat and the ships wheel are 3D decoupaged stickers. The sails of the boat have lots of sparkley glitter.
Here is an interior view of my card... luckily, there was one snippet of the map paper left for us to share.

I think I have finally figured out why my photos have been grainy for a few months. I have posted about it before. With this new Windows 8 computer, I resize the photo and then I crop it. I had not noticed that the cropping was reducing the photo to next to no pixels at all.

This time I resized just enough to fit the image on my screen and then I cropped it and resized it again, back to just under 800 pixels. I think it looks less grainy...how about you?

No recipe today, as these were my neighbour's supplies...although the stamp is from Michael's and the 3D elements are from the Dollar Store.

Wednesday, 2 April 2014

I was reading the brand new blog of an online Two Peas friend, Craft Nerd Creates. Her post was about making a mistake on a card element and soldiering on, changing up the design, and getting the card completed.
As I was reading her post, I felt myself nodding my head. I was thinking about an image I had stamped and coloured, only to manage to go outside the lines on the last strokes...with RED copic ink. Yes...Red!!! No amount of blender pen work would budge it back into place.

I was fairly upset and determined not to give in, so I fussy cut the image, carefully cutting off the offending stamped ribbon bow and tails, leaving 3/4 of the image intact. I then filed it in my coloured images photo album and forgot about it. I have pulled it out a few times but it always seemed too small to sit alone and looked forlorn on a card.

Got it out today and suddenly thought it might work if it sat on an ornament die! Once I had that issue sorted, the rest of the card just seemed to fall into place. Right beside the photo albums of my coloured images, are more photo albums of diecuts. Green albums for Xmas themes and black for everyday.
Rolling dies through my Big Shot can leave my hands aching for days so I often get DH, or the girls, or grandkids to roll a few dies through for me. Now that I have the magnetic platform, it is easy to load it chock full of dies before they roll it through. I then file them in the albums for those days when my hands are too sore to roll thing through myself.

All the dies on this page were from those albums...so once I chose an ornament diecut from there, it was only a matter of flipping through and pulling out what other dies would go with it.

Just as I finished the card, I decided that I needed to place that circular journal spot behind the ornament. As I carefully prised the ornament forward to tuck it in, I managed to mar the image with a bent mark. Arrrgh! I decided to try a thick coat of stickles over the whole image, hoping it would hide the bent mark. Thank goodness it worked. Added just a hint of stickles here and there over the flourish leaf die cuts and finally it was another card done and dusted!